Richard Carmona draws fire from former boss

Richard Carmona, the former U.S. surgeon general now running as a Democrat in Arizona for a Senate seat, made national headlines in 2007 when he told Congress that the Bush administration had improperly interfered in public health decisions for purely political reasons.

But behind the scenes, his former boss Cristina Beato — a onetime supporter turned bitter enemy — was painting a very different picture of Carmona for House investigators, alleging that an angry Carmona twice banged on her door and yelled at her in the middle of the night after workplace disputes.

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Beato gave her testimony in secret in 2007, saying Carmona was an “extremely angry” person, a “living nightmare” to work with, had trouble working for a female supervisor and abused travel privileges by improperly billing taxpayers for some personal expenses, according to the testimony. When POLITICO contacted Beato recently, she confirmed her testimony and reiterated her accusations on the record, five years after she originally gave them to the House committee.

Beato’s allegations — which the Carmona campaign vehemently denies — highlights an intense past rivalry between two top health officials from the Bush administration and are coming to light anew as Carmona seeks the U.S. Senate seat in Arizona.

And what’s clear from a previously unreleased House Oversight and Government Reform Committee document obtained by POLITICO is that Beato, a former top official at Health and Human Services, and Carmona, as surgeon general, clashed for years over some of the most fundamental issues in public health.

Yet it went deeper than that and got very personal.

Carmona accused Beato of carrying water for the Bush administration in politicizing public health issues ranging from secondhand smoke to stem cell research. Beato was never confirmed by the Senate due to intense Democratic opposition to her nomination — there was never even a hearing to review it — and was instead reappointed as an “acting” HHS official.

The Oversight and Government Reform Committee did not issue a final report on its investigation into the surgeon general’s office under the Bush White House, and Beato’s testimony had been kept private until POLITICO obtained the documents.

Carmona declined several interview requests for this story, but campaign aides furiously denied the allegations and sought to undermine Beato’s credibility, pointing to past allegations that she lied on her résumé. A number of Carmona allies also contacted POLITICO to praise him and question Beato’s integrity and competence while at HHS.

Beato’s most eye-opening accusation involves two incidents in which she says Carmona banged on her door at her house in the middle of the night, screaming at her over issues the two disagreed on. Beato, a single mother with two children, said she refused to open the door because she was frightened of his behavior. The two lived in the same neighborhood on the National Institutes of Health campus at the time.

If someone from the Bush administration is going after Carmona, then he must be doing something right. Anyone who fought against Bush, Cheney, Rumsfield, and all their cronies must have some integrity. The only thing better than having Bush people against you is to have Old W backing your opponent.